Posts Tagged ‘The Dude Designs’

With Thomas Hodge aka The Dude Design‘s massive collection of analog love VHS: Video Cover Art just getting released this past week – and he’s got some work appearing in Matthew Chojnacki‘s Alternative Movie Posters II: More Film Art from the Underground later this year – I figured I’d share one more upcoming book that I’m really excited about: Graham Humphreys‘ Drawing Blood!

With work known by horror fans pretty much all over the world, this UK-based illustrator has become quite legendary as he created a ton of VHS covers back in the 1980s, as well as cool record covers for bands like The Cramps (he did the 3D sleeve for their Off the Bone LP). Still at it today, his work has graced the covers of many Arrow Films & Video releases (my fave being Fulci‘s Zombie Flesh Eaters) as well as Death Waltz Recording Company records.

Released by Proud Galleries, this luxury art book is strictly limited to 500 copies and will be released in time for Halloween this year. The price is £150 (approx. $230), but Graham himself has stated on social media that if this sells out, a more moderately-priced paperback edition will be released. Pre-orders are taken here and make sure to check out his drool-inducing portfolio on his official website here.

Great news via The Dude Designs. Posted on his official Facebook page, Tom Hodge, states:

I can now proudly announce the book i have been working on for a while VHS: Video Cover Art on sale in MAY
(12″ x 9″ | hard cover | ISBN13: 9780764348679 | $34.99 (£27.00) )

My work has been built around a lifelong love of VHS (bordering on obsession at times!) and the amazing artworks which were used to adorn the video covers. They were ingrained in my psyche from the first time I ever entered a video store as a child. I have a particular fondness for UK video art (my home country) as many of the covers were specially commissioned by the numerous UK independent distributors and not seen much outside of this market.

These incredible artworks were created by amazing artists such as Enzo Sciotti, Renato Casaro, Caudio Casaro, Brian Bysouth, Graham Humphreys and Laurent Melki. Many artists sadly remain unnamed. The one thing they all held in common is the style and spirit of pure unabashed creativity, where art and film came together in a visual orgy of moustached muscled men, buxom beauties, big explosions, phallic guns, and nightmare-inducing monsters. Sadly this art-form largely disappeared along with demise of the VHS format.

Obscure gems to cult classics in all your favourite genres of Action, Comedy, Kids, Thriller, Sci-Fi and Horror. From the sublime to the ridiculous. Some are incredible works of art, some insane, some perfectly capture the tone of the films, some capture that tone even better than the films themselves, and some have the most tenuous link imaginable! However, all, as you will see, are amazing and inspiring works of art, which will captivate the imagination along with feelings of excitement and wonder, like stepping back into your local video store once again.

This looks like a beaut! Keep your eyes out for this one and make sure to give his page a “like” here!

UPDATE: Tom just announced on his Facebook page that VHS: Video Cover Art is already the number one bestseller in its category from pre-orders on Amazon UK. Awesome!

Well, freelance artist Tom Hodge, aka The Dude Designs just posted this on his official Facebook page, and not only did I decide to share it, but also partake in the discussion about the (sad) state of art, music and movies etc. these days. Brace youself kiddies ’cause Angry Old Fart just found an ally and had gallons of gasoline poured on his fire! Read more here.

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I got this via The Dude Designs – awesome poster art for John Carpenter‘s classic They Live. Apparently meant to be released as a limitied-edition tribute poster to Roddy Piper, it’s only available to see online right now (as he himself explains there might be some legal/copyright issues to solve before it can be released) so enjoy and drop him an email to pre-order.

If you recognize Thomas‘ style my guess would be you saw his great key art for the Hobo With a Shotgun DVD. He’s done tons of great work, check it out on his website (linked here) or just check out his Facebookhere.

Speaking of the movie, Carpenter himself claims it’s his most political movie (so far), dealing with 80s consumerism – and oddly enough it must’ve struck a chord with some conspiracy theorists because some out there claim it to be the truth these days. Anyway, it’s got a bit of an action/sci-fi blend going and if you haven’t seen it (as always) – DO! The trailer:

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Once again I find more inspiration via The Dude Design‘s page on Facebook. This was posted by the Design You Trust – Design Blog and Community and even though I haven’t read the book Steal Like an Artist by Austin Kleon I gotta say I find most of these points to more or less ring true. Still, most of these tips and lessons don’t really come as a surprise if you’ve ever been involved in the D.I.Y. punk/hardcore movement, but it’s nice to see the “anybody can do it!” attitude finally spreading to a larger crowd. Let’s hope that this creates a mild, unviolent revolution that once and for all get rid of the bland, boring and unimaginative people that nowadays occupy the top.

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Here’s some great, funny stuff I was hepped to by The Dude Designs; Josh Cooley‘s great series Movies R Fun! Taken from his book with the same name you get classic quotes from movies like The Big Lebowski, The Shining, The Godfather etc set to 60’s/70’s styled children’s books illustrations. Great work and pretty fun for us movie geeks. Check it out here and I think you can order the book via Josh’s official website here. More samples:

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More peeps with really cool jobs! Tom Hodge at The Dude Designs not only have good movie taste – spot the Big Lebowski reference? – he also does some really good stuff for video and dvd-releases as well as classic posters! Odds are if you’re into genre movies you’ve already seen some of his work! Modern stuff like Hobo With a Shotgun and the very Meyers-esque Pervert! but also classic stuff like Savage Streets starring Linda Blair! Check it out here!